I shake my head. "No, but thank you." I hand Josie back to her. "I need to see for myself."
Jesse takes my hand and goes with me.
All six are negative, and we both breathe a sigh of relief. We just stare at the test sticks.
"I could get my tubes tied," I offer.
Jesse pulls my hand, turning me to face him, wrapping his arms around me. "No, Luce. You've already done everything. This is for me to do."
"You mean—"
He nods against my head, then kisses my hair. "Snip, snip."
"Oh, Jesse," I say, hugging him tighter. "Are you sure?"
He nods. "It's not nearly as invasive for me as it is for you."
"Okay," I agree.
"Baby," he whispers. "I'd give you anything in the world, but not at the risk of your life. I won't risk your life again. We can't. Me and the kids need you way too much."
I nod against his chest, a tear slipping from my eye. "I know."
"I know you'd have liked to have had a normal pregnancy, Luce, but what about you and me has been normal?"
"Not a single thing," I admit with a laugh.
"We found each other that day in the airport. Soulmates who needed just a little more time so we could get it right," my amazing husband says, dancing me side to side. "And we did get it right. More than right. What we have…"
I sniffle and he wipes my tears, leaning back to look into my eyes.
"What we have is the stuff of fairytales."
I smile. "It really is. I don't know how I got so lucky as to fall in love with my teenage crushandmarry himandhave his babies, but I thank every possible reason why."
"We're enough as we are, right?" he questions, and I hate myself for making him doubt.
I lift my hands to his face. "We are more than enough, my love."
He rests his forehead against mine.
"I love you so much, Luce."
"I love you, too."
"This is touching and all," Xan begins, "But can we go eat now? I'm fucking starving."
Jesse and I just grin at one another.
Xan swipes his arm across the counter, all the test sticks falling into the garbage.
"I could eat," I admit.
"Whatever Mrs. M is making smells so good," Jesse admits, his stomach growling.
We walk through our suite toward the door.
"Hey," Xander says as he wraps his arm around Tera. "Did you notice Kadi hasn't tried to collect money from us for swearing today?"
"I did notice that. I think she's giving us a break, otherwise she'd have to charge her mom who just gave birth," I tell him.
"Maybe," Xan says skeptically. "I think she's up to something."
"She might send you a bill. Remember the first time she did that," Tera reminds us and Xan scoffs.
"There's no way I owed her that much…"
As we head to the kitchen, I realize my life is exactly as I want and need it to be. I won't say it's perfect because no one's life is perfect, but mine's pretty damn close. Tonight I'm going to remind my husband of that as I fuck him until his brains leak from his ears. It's our last night alone before the kids come home and I'm taking full advantage. I can't imagine him complaining, can you?
